Tuesday, February 22, 2011

How is this for being caught up in the uglier stage of a drawing? ;) Instead of showing you a clean section of a drawing in progress, I thought that I would show the messier stage of development. The tuft of hair at the top is the closest to completed part of this drawing. As you follow down the side, the hair is in varying degrees of being rendered. Usually, I tend to do smaller areas at a time and take them to completion, but I got a little ahead of myself on this one. So... I went back up to the top of the hair to blend and highlight and am currently working the side of the face. The dark background at this point is just hinted to along the sides of the hair. It is very tempting to put in the background before going further. This is something that I normally do not do, but the darkness of the photo reference versus the whiteness of the paper is making me distracted. I am not sure what to do there yet. It is frustrating to not be able to put in the highlighted stray hairs, but they really have to wait until the end of the drawing process. I hope to have something a little more pleasant for the eyes to view in the next post... :)

Monday, February 14, 2011

Isn't this such a cute little dog to start on Valentine's Day? (Of course, it would have a whole lot more appeal if it was finished!) The size of this piece will be 6 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches. This drawing will differ from the others due to the fact that it will have a black background, and a lot of the dog's body fades into the darkness. This effect illuminates the subject in such a serene way. I originally had another Yorkie pic ready to go, but I stumbled across this one and fell in love. It even bumped the other photo out of the running for being the next piece. I look forward to the challenge of recreating the photographer's beautiful representation of this breed. :)

Sunday, February 6, 2011

I am so happy to say that the Boxer is finished! Believe it or not this is a little girl, too. The photo was generously made available at a picture library, and in the file it stated that this cutie's name is Lucy. It must be a lucky name for me! :) The background is blurred out grass. In retrospect, it would have been easier to do a faint cloudy background to this one and probably would have been just as effective. Of course, I planned to keep with the photo. After completing the background, the pattern and depth of graphite seemed to be overpowering. My husband agreed. So... the background got some rework :( and a considerable amount of lightening to it. Now, both of us are happy with the result. A lot of time could have been saved by opting out of the reference background, but of course as most of you know, my preference has always been for busier ones. :) (Of course during the rework, I might have given a different answer!)

I did go back and work some 9b into the dog's face and ears. It helped to define the whiskers as they went in. Quite a few of the hairs around the lower jaw were not defined. Sometimes it is tempting to get carried away and put them in there, but then it throws off the natural appearance and makes the subject come across flat. I remind myself of that all the time, since whiskers are my favorite part of animal drawings!

So what is next for the drawing board? I have a lovely shot of my son with a little tree frog sitting on his hand that I would really like to do, but my husband is pushing for another dog. His choice is a darling picture of a little Yorkshire Terrier. I might do a line drawing of each and decide then, since I'm sure both will be renderings for this year. ;)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Fifteen inches of snow later... and here is where I am at with my Boxer. (Not that I am implying that it takes a blizzard shutting down half of Illinois to make me work at my art. But it does take away a lot of other options!) The only area left on the dog is a smidge of his back and some light fur in front. The background of the photo reference is very blurred and hazy, so it will not add much except a few faint references to shadows. I am actually anxious to see how the 'lack' of background will affect this piece. So many of my backgrounds are busy, and this will make for a nice change of pace. I would like to see this one completed and a sketch in the works for the next drawing before the weekend is over, but it does no good to hurry a drawing. The weather man is calling for sub zero wind chills here, so that will definitely limit any other activities. (I avoid going out in the cold if at all possible!) At any rate, the next post will be the completed work. Yay! :)

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If you would like to ask any questions about my work or drop a friendly line, I can be contacted at sketchesfromtcuts (at) hotmail.com . (Just replace (at) with the @ symbol.) I would be happy to hear from you!